1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of cleansing agents, preferably for personal use and, more particularly the invention refers to a single-dose cleansing unit, for prevention and treatment of several disorders and diseases and for personal hygiene such as a toilet soap, a soap bar, shampoo, hair conditioner, hair rinsing agents, capillary tonics, bath gels, and tooth paste as well any other cleaning and cleansing product for personal and domestic application, wherein the product also comprises phyto-therapeutic extracts.
Such extracts are employed in the treatment of a variety of disorders like acne and skin diseases, as well as for seborrhea and damaged dry-hair.
For the purpose of this disclosure the term xe2x80x9csingle-dosexe2x80x9d generically means that the cleansing unit, product or agent of the invention is designed for use only once by the user, such as an individual or animal, without remaining disposing portions of the unit except that the user decides to leave portions of the unit without using the entirety of same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For a several number of years many formats and shapes have been used for various kinds of cleaning and cleansing agents used for personal applications and other uses in the domestic and industrial areas. The formats and presentation of these products have always been the results of studies related to the particular use of the agent, that is, in liquid, powder and solid formulations.
For example, in the particular case of toilet soap bars, the same have been commercialized in larger or smaller pieces of soap, but always such units had a size enough to use the soap bar for several times. While all these soap bars have been designed for personal use, these bars are exposed to the use by many different persons either in the house, or in worse conditions, in public locations, such as toilets or bathrooms at restaurants, gas stations, etc. It is quite common to find a soap bar of this type with many impurities like dirty, down, hair and other undesired elements. While the bar is found in solid state, dry and with consistency enough to be used, people is reluctant to use the soap bar in the above dirty conditions and, generally, the soap bar is disposed even with an almost entire original size, that is with a little use. In other words, the soap is wasted prematurely because of its appearance.
Other cleansing products such as shampoos and hair conditioners are commercialized in large and non practical containers which, in addition to the inconveniences of these containers in their use, the same are spoilage and dangerous agents for the environment when empty. Sometimes, the cost of the container reaches the cost of the contained product and, even if special caps are fitted in the container, few possibilities of metering the content are provided for the consumer. Generally, when used by children or in baths at sport clubs, hotels and other public places, the product is remarkably wasted such as poured onto the floor, used unnecessarily in excess, etc.
The above problems and drawbacks are exasperated when the cleansing product is a medicated product with medicinal components for the treatment of a disorder or diseases that causes the product to be only for personal use.
In view of the above drawbacks, it would therefore be convenient to have a kind of soap, shampoo, hair conditioner or any other cleaning product, preferably a personal toilet product, capable of providing a personal unit with a small size, to be used once and disposed without waste of the product. Even if a person skilled in the art would think that this question is easily resolved by making a soap bar or cleansing product as small as possible to only cover the needs of an individual for washing hands or taking a bath or a shower, this attempt has not been shown as a solution to this problem as long as too much time must be awaited until such presumable soap bar is dissolved in the hands, over the human body or in any other application.
It would be therefore desirable to find such a small cleaning agent product unit capable of being applied, preferably, in personal hygiene and having a high capacity to be quickly dissolved in a washing or cleansing operation.
It would also be desirable that the product be a single-dose cleansing product comprising agents or components for treating the skin, the head skin and/or hair, with the agents being phyto-therapeutic extracts with several medicinal, healing, curing and repairing activities, for example.
3. Summary of the Invention
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a single-dose quick dissolving cleansing agent, with preventing and treating activity for the treatment of disorders and diseases in human beings and animals, wherein the agent comprises a surfactant, a first and second disintegrating agents combined for causing a sudden disintegration and dissolution of the agent upon contacting the agent with a liquid medium, an agglutinating agent, a phyto-therapeutic extract providing the preventing and treating activity, and bactericide, essences and colorants.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a single-dose, quick dissolving, cleansing, preventing and treating agent for use in individuals and animals, wherein the agent comprises the following components: about 10 wt % to about 30 wt % of a surfactant; about 5 wt % to about 15 wt % of a first disintegrating agent; about 10 wt % to about 60 wt % of a second disintegrating agent, wherein the first and second disintegrating agents causing a sudden disintegration and dissolution of the agent upon contacting the agent with a liquid medium; about 5 wt % to about 20 wt % of an agglutinating agent; about 3 wt % to about 20 wt % of a phyto-therapeutic extract; and bactericide, essences and colorants.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a single-dose, quick dissolving, cleansing, preventing and treating agent for use in individuals and animals, wherein the agent comprises the following components: a surfactant selected from the group comprising lauryl sodium sulfate, Sodium Meyhil Oleyl Taurate (Hostapon), Sodium cocoylisthionates (SCI), purified coconut oil derivatives, Sodium Lauryl Sulfosuccinate, cocamidopropylbetaine and mixtures thereof; a first disintegrating agent selected from the group comprising croscaramellose, sodic croscaramellose (Acdisol, starch 1500 pvp-xl, explotab), polyvinyl pyrrolidone, carboxymethyl cellulose; a second disintegrating agent, such as micro-crystalline cellulose (Avicel), an agglutinating agent selected from the group comprising gum arabic, cellactose and hydrolyzed lactose, a phyto-therapeutic extract selected from the group comprising extracts of Betula alba, Aloe feroxmill, Achilea millefollum, xc3x81rnica montana, Calendula officinalis, Fucus vesiculosus, Humulus lupulus, Melissa officinalis, Urtica dioica, Ros marinus officinalis, Ruscus aculeatus, Rosa Aff. rubiginosa, Salvia officinalis, Sambucus nigra, Vitis vinifera, Tilia platythyllos, Santalum albuml, Panax ginseng, Centella asixc3xa1tica, Melilotus chamomilla, Matricaria recutita, Malva sylvestris, Hedera helix, Lawsonia inermis, Hammelis virginiana, Quina, Sylibum marianum, Crataegus, algae, Geranium and combinations thereof.
It is even another object of the present invention to provide the above disclosed agent further comprising co-surfactant components, adjuvant agents, antistatic agents, fragrances, dies, opacity agents and/or a wetting adjuvant agent selected from the group comprising vegetal amides, cold cream, lanoline, silicone and its derivatives.
It is even another object of the present invention to provide the above disclosed agent comprising a bactericide selected from the group comprising Bactekrill, Triclosan, Nipagin, Nipasol and combinations thereof.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide the above disclosed agent with the components being compressed from a powder form and agglutinated into a compact and quick soluble solid agent, unit or product defining a body selected from the group comprising a solid bar, a solid tablet, a solid pill, solid pellets, solid lozenges, capsules, and an ovule with a wet interior and an outer gel cover, all being for only one personal use.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a single-dose, quick dissolving, cleansing, preventing and treating agent, unit or product for use in individuals and animals, wherein the agent has a pH between 5 and 8 and a weight between 0.3 and 5 g.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of this invention will be better understood when taken in connection with the following description and preferred embodiments.
The inventive cleansing agent, also named product or unit, for use in preventing and treating several disorders and diseases, preferably in the skin and hair, is a basic formulation comprising a surfactant, a first disintegrating agent, such as croscaramellose; a second disintegrating agent, such as micro-crystalline cellulose, an agglutinating agent such as cellactose; and bactericides, essences and colorants. According to the invention, a specific phyto-therapeutic extract is added to the above formulation with the desired purposes of prevention and treatment. A person skilled in the art will be able to find a variety of phyto-therapeutic extracts within the scope and spirit of the invention.
Depending on the case, an elaboration method should be adjusted to the characteristics of the employed extract, for thus obtaining the cleansing, preventing and treating agent of the invention preferably in a form of a compressed tablet. Thus, the size of the particles or granules of some or all of the components, the compression values and other parameters forming part of the process may be adjusted.
In some embodiments, due to the characteristics of the product, the pH may be adjusted. For example, for hair rinsing products the pH is adjusted to a value between 5 and 6.
Said adjustment may be carried out by adding organic acids, in powder form, in an amount between about 0.3 to about 1 wt %. The organic acids may be citric acid, tartaric acid, or other acids well known in the art.
The inventive cleansing agent may be commercialized in the form of solid bar, a solid tablet, a solid pill, solid pellets, solid lozenges, capsules, ovules with a wet interior and an outer gel cover, etc., and preferably in tablet form having a weight of about 1.5 g.
The invention may be obtained through a process by compressing all of the dry powdered components, having a humidity degree  less than 0.2%, for example, adjusting the granulometry by milling and sifting or screening, and maintaining a humidity of 35% to 55% in the working room.
Some phyto-therapeutic extracts may be found in the market in liquid or oily form, therefore, the process may require an intermediate step, humid granulating process, consisting of mixing all the components of the cleansing agent together with the extract and diluting said mixture in the solvent of the extract until obtaining a humid or wet mass that is dried at a temperature enough for preventing the components from being altered. At a temperature of 70xc2x0 C., for example. Once the mixture is at a 0.2% humidity, the same is milled and compacted or compressed until obtaining a solid tablet, for example. It is also possible to transform the humid mass into solid tablets that, afterwards, are milled and sifted to convert the same into a dry powder to be finally compacted.
In certain embodiments the first disintegrating agent, sodium croscaramellose, for example, is incorporated in steps, adding a part of same during the humid granulation process and adding the remaining part of same into the final powder mixture, all this before the compacting or compression step. This two-part process improves and enhances the dissolution, and takes advantage of the absorption and swelling properties, of the sodium croscaramellose. The addition of sodium croscaramellose during the step of humid granulation provides an intimate mixture between the several components and such addition, during the final dry mixing, allows the same to be distributed intra and extra granularly, thus optimizing its function as disintegrating agent.
The extracts may be hydro-glycolic, hydro-alcoholic, oily extracts, or soft extracts. For each particular case, the extract should be diluted in the corresponding solvent. For example, in glycol, alcohol, oil and water.
The phyto-therapeutic product may be anyone known in the art, such as the extracts from Betula alba, Aloe feroxmill, Achilea millefollum, xc3x81rnica montana, Calendula officinalis, Fucus vesiculosus, Humulus lupulus, Melissa officinalis, Urtica dioica, Ros marinus officinalis, Rosa Aff. rubiginosa, Salvia officinalis, Sambucus nigra, Vitis vinifera or combinations thereof.
The cleansing and treating product of the invention may also comprise proteins, such as hydrolyzed collagens, vitamins, oligoelements, anti-oxidants and bio-molecule protectors.
The phyto-therapeutic extracts are employed in medicine and cosmetic with tested efficiency. Their therapeutic effects are due to the active principles contained in the same. For example, the extract of Betuna alba is used as an stimulant, astringent and antiseptic. The extract of Sambucus nigra is used as anti-rosaceous, anti-itching and skin softener, and the extract of Vitis vinifera is used as vasoconstrictor and astringent tonic.
As a way of example, and without restricting the scope of the invention, a variety of formulations for the inventive cleansing, preventing and treating agent are as follows.